The Law of Nations: Between Natural and Positive Law

Abstract

The history of International Law intertwines with its definition. On the one hand, if International Law is defined as a group of positive and interstate rules then it is a recent enterprise and does not correspond to the concept examined in this work. On the other hand, the idea that there exist legal rules applicable to all men is as old as Natural Law itself. Even so, unlike the majority of the authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemporary internationalists do not hesitate in keeping Natural Law far aside from their subject of study.